Senate Report Card: Daniel Akaka D-HI

Senator Daniel Akaka is the junior Democratic Senator from the state of Hawaii. He is only the second U.S. Senator of Native Hawaiian ancestry and is the only Chinese American Senator. He was appointed in 1990 to the Senate by Governor John Waihee upon the death of Senator Spark Matsunaga. He has since won fairly easy reelection campaigns for his seat.

Senator Akaka is the Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, The Armed Services subcommittee on Readiness and Management, the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks Historic Preservation and Recreation, and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia.

Akaka sponsored legislation to afford sovereignty to native Hawaiians and remains under consideration. He has been criticized as being an ineffective Senator in that he sponsors mainly minor legislation and often his sponsored legislation dies in committee.

Senator Akaka has worked to add over $296 million for Hawaii-specific projects to the Department of Defense authorization and appropriations measures. He helped in the creation of the Senate Army Caucus which routinely meets with Army leadership to discuss issues of importance to soldiers and their dependents.

The environment is a large concern to Akaka who supports the National Environmental Policy, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Ocean Dumping Act and the Endangered Species Act. Obviously concerns about the environment would be at forefront to most citizens of Hawaii who seek to preserve their states natural beauty and maintain its all-too important tourist industry.

The Senator from Hawaii is a supporter of renewable sources of energy, including solar, wind, photovoltaic and ocean thermal conversion. He introduced the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Reauthorization Act, which reauthorized the methane hydrate research and development program through FY 2010.

As a former teacher and principal, Akaka has fought for education issues, sponsoring the Teacher Acculturation Act of 2005, which proposed three new demonstration grant programs for pre-service and in-service teacher training and the establishment of centers of multicultural excellence, toward promoting a greater understanding of the problems facing teachers in multicultural classroom settings and methods to address them.

Akaka has led a charge for foreign language coordination within United States schools. He along with Senator Joe Lieberman sponsored the College Pathway Act which would improve college readiness of exited high school seniors.

Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii will be up for reelection to his seat in 2013.